Variation is the key for Northern Mystics netball coach Debbie Fuller ahead of this weekend's must-win trans-Tasman netball league doubleheader.
Wins over Canterbury Tactix in Auckland tomorrow and West Coast Fever in Perth on Sunday will put the Mystics' season back on track.
Even one loss will make a top-four finish that much more unlikely.
Fuller is well aware of what is at stake, and has every confidence her team will pull through, despite some patchy performances in the league to date.
"We need to be able to win the game against the Tactix, and win well, and then we need to be able to take the Fever in Australia," she told NZPA today.
"It's a big seven days ahead of us."
The Tactix are hitting their stride, notching up their first win of the league with a 49-44 win over Southern Steel last Thursday, then pushing Adelaide Thunderbirds before succumbing 44-49 on Sunday.
And the Fever are coming off a scrappy 61-63 extra-time loss to perennial under-achievers Central Pulse on Monday.
Fuller is taking neither team lightly, but is looking to her players to step up with a 60-minute performance in both games.
She said the Mystics' ability to mix their play would prove crucial, especially as their talented midcourt could expect to come under huge pressure as teams sought to dry up ball supply into accurate shooters Cathrine Latu and Maria Tutaia.
"Our midcourt's always going to be taken out by teams, because we've got 100 percent shooters," Fuller said.
"Any team that's going to plan against us will want to take out our centre and wing attack so that the feeding is inaccurate.
"It's going to be hard for them, they're going to be under more pressure and they have to be able to change their game when required."
Fuller said that meant variation in the feed, and introducing more unpredictability into the game.
"We need to have that variation in our game now, because it's getting to the business end of the competition."
With Latu and Tutaia coming into their own, Temepara George taking control of the midcourt, and Anna Scarlett and Rachel Rasmussen closing down the defensive circle, the Mystics at their best can push any team.
Silver Fern Joline Henry is easing back into full play after an ankle inury, and the Mystics roster of up-and-coming youngsters has shown the ability to step up when needed.
Where the Mystics have faltered in the past has been in their consistency over four quarters, and in cutting back a fluctuating error rate.
The Mystics' preferred style of play, Fuller said, would always leave them open to coughing up a higher percentage of turnover ball.
"What we're trying to promote is using our ball speed, and with that you're going to have errors," she said.
"We have players in our team who are really intuitive and who have a knack of using the ball speed and angles that really work for us.
"We could walk the ball down to the circle edge, and give it to our shooters if we wanted to, and that's something we need to be able to fall back on if the consistency is getting out of hand."
She said the Mystics' decision-making under pressure would have to be spot on to pick up two wins over the weekend.
"It's a fine line, but that's the beauty of netball, when you've a team that has that understanding of each other and the ball can flow, bang-bang-bang into the circle.
"That's a hard thing to stop."
In other matches, the Tactix back up against Southern Steel in Dunedin on Saturday while Melbourne Vixens host Adelaide Thunderbirds in Melbourne on Sunday.
Central Pulse, fresh from their second win of the season, host competition leaders Queensland Firebirds in Porirua and Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic wind up the round on Monday against NSW Swifts in Tauranga.
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